Champ Car

Champ Car, a shortened form of "Championship Car," has been the name for a class of cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades.

Comparison with Formula One car

A Champ Car is a single seater (commonly called open wheel) racing car. For much of their history Champ Cars have been similar to Formula One cars, although there have traditionally been several key differences between the two.

Related Topics:
Open wheel - Racing car - Formula One

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Over the years, Champ Cars raced mainly on high speed oval tracks. The increased stress and speed of these tracks mean that the cars tended to be heavier and more sluggish than F1 cars, which race exclusively on road and street courses.
• Since the late 1960s Champ Cars have used turbocharged engines. Turbos were banned in Formula One on safety grounds in 1989. For some periods of their history, notably in the early 1970s and late 1990s, turbocharging gave Champ Cars up to 300 horsepower (220 kW) more than F1 cars - in qualifying trim, the Champ Cars could at one time approach 1000 horsepower (750 kW) before regulations on turbo boost were tightened. The current generation of cars are now less powerful than F1 cars, and the turbo is used mainly to improve the spectacle rather than lap-times with the so-called 'push-to-pass' system giving drivers an increased amount of power for a limited duration during the race. Another reason for retaining the turbocharger is with many city street races on the calendar, the muffling effect it has on the exhaust note helps keep the cars inside noise-limits.
• Champ Cars use methanol for fuel rather than gasoline, and refuelling has always been permitted during the race. This is a legacy of a crash at the 1964 Indianapolis 500 in which a crash involving cars filled with more than 40 US gallons (150 L) of gasoline killed two drivers in an immense fireball. Until 1994, when refuelling was re-introduced to F1, the prominent coupling for the refuelling hose was a notable difference between Champ Cars and European Formula cars.
• Champ Cars continue to have sculpted undersides to create ground effect. This innovation was originally created in Formula One by Lotus in 1978, and was immediately used on the Chaparral Champ Car in 1979. F1 banned ground effects for safety reasons in 1982.
• While F1 and GP2 use grooved tires to limit performance, Champ Cars remain using tread-less 'slick' racing tires. To make races more unpredictable, drivers are permitted to use one set of higher performance softer compound tires. Informally called 'alternates', these tires are made visible to the spectators by their red sidewalls.
• Unlike in F1, Champ Car teams are not obliged to construct their own chassis, and in recent times have tended to buy chassis constructed by independent suppliers such as Lola, Reynard and March. The most notable exception was Penske Racing, although they also bought other cars when their own chassis was uncompetitive.

For many years Champ Cars were also called "Indy Cars" after the Indianapolis 500. However, since 1996 they have not run at the Indianapolis 500 as that race became part of the separate Indy Racing League which uses different specifications for its cars. The term IndyCar is now trademarked to the IRL in the United States, but Champ Car races in Australia and Canada continue to bear the Indy name.

Related Topics:
Indianapolis 500 - Indy Racing League - IndyCar - Australia - Canada

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~